Please allow me to reintroduce myself

Before we talk about what’s going on in Vancouver (or Wancouver, as Esa Tikkanen said last week) I owe a big, big, big thank-you to Laurel, who did a magnificent job (not surprised by that, but still thrilled by it). I’m starting to think she likes hockey. And starting to think she likes this blog. Anyway, she could have done minimum work and it would have been better than shutting down, but she chose to go above and beyond. You rule, Mama!

And also kudos to our special guests, Captain Clutch and Uncle Glennie. As always, you guys were hilarious.
So on to last night, one of the better hockey games you’ll ever see in terms of action. Lots of mistakes, granted, but often the better games are that way because of mistakes.

1) Which brings us to this: That’s what Safe Is Death looks like when you have some skill on the roster.

2) The MSNBC broadcast, I thought, was terrific. For one thing, there was no Pierre McGuirre. I know Pierre for a long time and we have a good relationship and I like the guy personally. But his between the benches thing vandalizes games. Too much constant chatter. Plus it hurts my brain when he starts every sentence with “edzo”.

2) Jeremy Roenick has contribued less than zero. And that clown “Willie” on MSNBC’s postgame was just overmatched. Among his many inaccuracies, he called the Crosby goal “one of the few tough chances” that Ryan Miller faced. Huh?

3) He, and others, also called it the biggest Olympic upset since 1980. To compare that to 1980, first of all, is naive and dumb and disrespectful. But really, how many upsets have their been since 1980? And here’s a news flash. Since 1952, Canada has won one gold medal in men’s hockey, or one fewer than the U.S. And one fewer than Sweden.

4) Capt. Clutch looks pretty darn good. He has two typical Drury garbage goals. How many has he had like that during the NHL season?

5) Martin Brodeur helped him there by taking a moment to whack at one of the USA guys who had bumped him, then having to scramble for the puck Drury ultimately buried. I think they have to go back to Luongo in goal now. Right?

6) They keep saying that this is Chris Pronger’s fourth Olympics. Maybe he should have stopped at three. He stinks.

7) Love the circa 1960 jerseys.

8) The best thing in this whole Olympics so far was the half hour Al Michaels did with Mike Eruzione, Jim Craig and Mark “Magic” Johnson on the Miracle in ’80. Spent 30 minutes with goosebumps, and remembered just how much I miss my friend, the mad scientist of all hockey coaches, Herb Brooks.

9) My old bladder isn’t cut out for these limited-commercial-interruptions telecasts.

10) Did you see the Monster Ovechkin lay out the former captain of the New York Rangers. That was a whale of a game, too.

11) I’m not counting out Canada. Or any of the superpowers. But now I’m including the Red, White and Blue among those.

Drury graces the back page of both the Post and Daily News today…News headline is “Red, White, and Blueshirt.” Welcome to Bizarro World, where Chris Drury has regained his status as a clutch hockey player and American hockey hero.

Adam Z, it’s almost as if he’s doing it on spite lol! Good for him though, let him have his last hurrah. But he’s gotta be thinking, ‘those effin Rangers fans are gonna expect this from me for the rest of the season now!” He’s caught between a rock and a hard place. :-)

a number of good points in there, especially
the Safe Is Death (noticed that last night as well)
and how awful the post-game commentator was
(it was almost as if they pulled some broadcast’s
weatherman because someone else couldn’t make it)

Wait till Germany sticks it to Canada! Wishful thinking, I know… but can you imagine the crying by the Canadians if they lose to Germans?? Then the Olympics will be renamed “Winter Olympics in Whinecouver”
It’s hard for me to root for Germans but…LET’S GO GERMANY!

“It was a tough game,” Brodeur said when asked for a self-critique. “They got some bounces, they scored some goals, one went off my player. I thought I made some key saves in the game to turn it around, but we just didn’t take advantage of it. I think after the two breakaway saves I made in the second, I feel that maybe something was going to happen, but we went out there and took three penalties in a row from there. They scored that fourth goal and that was important for them.”

I’ll agree on the limited commercial thing, I had no idea and I’m standing in the doorway with my legs twisted around each other thinking a was a few seconds away from a commercial for like an hour… who knew

I hate Cindy, but he does spend a lot of time in those “high traffic” zones to score goals – I hate Drury’s contract more now that he seems to be in those zones more in the olympics than for the Rangers…Backus and Cally are making a difference, so far.

..and wasnt Rafalski a free agent when Slats signed Wade, but 6 years for Dredden was better than 4 years for Rafalski? yeesh..

Carp: I find the pause button on DVR to be a great help for the bladder!

Don’t write Canada off that fast, folks. I still think they’re favorites to win it all. Their path all of a sudden got much harder than they anticipated. And that game against Russia may define it all.

They very cool aspect of the results, and the reason that the early round matters, is that now the 3 “Favorites” – Canada, Russia, Sweden – are on the same side of the draw, and only one (at most, ha-ha, go Slovaks and Gabbi) can reach the Gold game. Not that the US path thru Swiss then Finn\Czech is ‘easy’, but maybe ‘easier’

Nothing is sweeter than seeing Team USA make Brodeur sweat! And Cally and Drury are pulling more weight on that team than on the Rangers. Oh, yeah, it’s because there they aren’t expected to be more than grunts, which they do well (and even pop in some goals when the offensive pressure’s off).

Carp, since the week is over, I am hereby released from my previous promise. And besides, CR9 did ask, and I believe in giving the boneheads what they want. Here’s something totally new and different :)

So are the Canadians sticking with Marty out of loyalty? I’ve always felt this was a downfall with them over the years, sticking with older players who are past it. The USA has the right idea, young and hungry. Imagine with Brian Burke’s reception is going to be in TO if they don’t win the gold now!!!

The Swedes look good, and the Czechs, Russians and Slovaks are the only teams that have played against more than one tough team in the early round.
This tournament is great. The NHL would be foolish to not let these rivalries continue next Olympics. And if the Canadians don’t get a gold medal here, the NHL will definitely be going to the next Olympics, mark my words. If Canada doesn’t get a gold, they will start arguing about the next Olympic line-up on Monday.

that postgame guy kept saying that Rafalski had a hat trick, until somebody in his earpiece corrected him. He also said Rafalski came out of nowhere. And that Rafalski won three Cups with Detroit. I think he really thought this was as big as 1980. I don’t believe he knew who Eruzione was. And he was about 20 seconds behind all the replays, and had no idea what he was watching on any of them.

The guy’s name is Willie Giest and he is a news contibutor on MSNBC. I see him regularly on the Morning Joe show talking about various topics. If he has a sports background it is obviously not in hockey. I get the feeling that the post game show was thrown together at the last minute to capitalize on the unexpested US victory. The TV listings called for a documentary to be aired in that timeslot.

Crosby, in fact, was not even up to the standards of the U.S.’s best player this night, Patrick Kane. Kane has to be the only millionaire hockey superstar who needs a soother, skating through traffic with his plastic tooth guard dangling so ludicrously out of his mouth that it makes the little Chicago Blackhawks forward look more like Maggie of The Simpsons than Bobby of the Hulls.

Drury, pride of Trumbull, Conn., has had season-long scoring troubles with the Blueshirts, and was a late selection to the team, but he has now scored in consecutive games, and has an undeniable gift for winning, going back to his days as a Little League World Series hero.

#2…and definitely a scholar

Obama rocks
10:11:25 AM
Feb 22, 2010

Does anyone actually watch the NHL.I am glad these hockey games are not shown on NBC instead it is shown on MSNBC.Hockey is the 6th most popular sport in this country behind football,basketball,baseball,nascar racing,and mma.Maybe if the NHL had more people of color the sport could actually grow in this country

i didn’t catch it but a few friends did see, just before tge handshakes,cindy blew a snot into his right(handshaking) hand….anyone who has it on dvr please verify…if that’s what he did,he’s really a sorry little btch…

its amazing that the talking heads are soooooo awful! the guy doing the recap should be doing the friggin weather or cheesy puff pieces about lost kittens. it was pathetic. You would think that they would hire some people to talk about the game that had an idea who the player were.

“I don’t think it’s fair the criticism Dru gets in New York,” says Rangers winger and teammate Ryan Callahan. “He goes out there every night and lays it on the line, and I think it’s pretty nice to kind of be able to give a smile to those critics and say, ‘What do you have to say now?’ It’s nice. I’m really glad for him.”

Adds U.S. coach Ron Wilson, “He has those — well, I’ll say it — Mike Eruzione-type qualities. [He’s] diving in front of shots, blocking them, winning big face-offs, doing a lot of dirty grunt work that often gets overlooked. But not by coaches.”

On the game’s biggest stage, Drury is the same player he is every night. No, wait — he’s better”

He goes out there every night and lays it on the line, and I think it’s pretty nice to kind of be able to give a smile to those critics and say, ‘What do you have to say now?’

…..

On one hand, it’s good to see Chris play with fire and motivation … but on the other it is somewhat insulting to me as a fan that he (Drury) does not play like this for the team that actually pays him a lot of money.

Also, Rangers is anything BUT team USA that is full of top end talent that makes players like Drury look really good… so comparing these two is just dumb!

And now we gonna hear this Drury bullcarp to no end again! What do we say now, Ryan? Well…we say:

GET HIM THE FUNK OUTTA HERE! Let him live out his “legacy” somewhere else!

In fairness to Roenick, Drury is proving a lot of doubters incorrect with this play. Like, for example, Rangers fans wondering why he can “come up with big goals for the U.S. Olympic team in a game against the loaded Canadians when he can’t do the same for the Rangers when they are playing the Columbus Blue Jackets.”

The answer, of course, is that Marty Brodeur doesn’t play for Columbus.

Wtf is going on?! Did Drury just won a Gold Medal for USA? Did Drury just solve world peace and hunger?? WTF IS GOING ON?! Why is everyone falling to Drury’s feet, eh? He scores a go ahead goal (and not even GW goal!!) and blocks few shots and everyone suddenly wants their children to grow up to be like Chris?? What aboot other players on team USA? They do nothing??

I think we as New York Rangers fans also need to issue a national apology to Chris for not letting him enjoy his luxurious stay in New York!

Drury and Callahan are very lucky that Canada was incapable of scoring on their last shift when they got trapped in the zone and couldn’t get clear the puck while Drury glided around. Drury played a good game, but he certainly wasn’t perfect. Canada couldn’t finish, and Joe Thornton once again came up small in a big game.
Don’t appreciate Callahan telling us that we just don’t understand how good Drury really is. Drury has been here 3 seasons doing a whole lot of nothing — at least on the 4th line, he’s found a home. Woohoo! Enough with the Drury propaganda.

Hey carp! Welcome back! I think you would be proud to know that I sprinted a full two laps around a bar screaming CAPTAIN CLUTCH at canadian fans after Chris drury scored the goal. Bartenders said it was one of the funniest things they saw in a while!

So I watch the World Jrs final, and there is some goof dressed in red with a He Shoots…..He Scores sign that he holds up, and the camera goes to on each Canada goal. Same doofus was at the game last night with his goofy sign. When Canada scores, the camera pans to it. Reminds me of that guy that they called “sign man” at the old Spectrum for Flyer games. Hated him too…..he was a Flyers fan. Glad the USA won again. Somebody needs to destroy that sign.

did brodeur really not shake hands last night?
Either way he has no class as mentioned already, the comments about himself and his play after the game show that, stop talking about yourself and stop trying to vindicate yourself or defend your performance, you are not the best canadian goaltender right now, plain and simple
so happy that he played last night though and not luongo, made it much more satisfying and gave USA more of a chance to win

tomb – what national hits is Brodeur taking? would love to hear, cant stand the guy

I dont understand why everybody freaks out about this whole drury thing, the guy was in the right place at the right time for his goal last night, it was a garbage goal but it came at a huge time, its not like the guy is out there playing like ovechkin stickhandling past everyone and looking like a one man show completely different from what he does when hes playing for the rangers, hes playing how he plays just about every game.
If youre a ranger fan and you dont think that drury puts it all on the line every night youre an idiot, the guy tries to block every shot he is in the vicinity of, sacrfices body all the time, the guy just has not SCORED for us the way alot of people have wanted him to because of his ridiculous contract
This is the olympics and hes representing his country so of course hes leaving it all out there on the rink but he does that every night with the rangers too, he just cant score in boatloads anymore, never really has, he doenst have the skill, but anyone who questions his effort is shot, in my opinion
Rangers fans are just pissed bc hes scoring when hes not in a rangers jersey, but should just be happy for the guy for god sakes

Crosby, in fact, was not even up to the standards of the U.S.’s best player this night, Patrick Kane. Kane has to be the only millionaire hockey superstar who needs a soother, skating through traffic with his plastic tooth guard dangling so ludicrously out of his mouth that it makes the little Chicago Blackhawks forward look more like Maggie of The Simpsons than Bobby of the Hulls.

Brodeur WAS in the handshake line. I Have it on tape. BUT!! What a great game!!! I’m still watching it. I might watch it more than I watched Rocky III. As weird as this may sound, I wasn’t surprised at all with the goals Marty let in. As for Bobby Lu, he hasn’t been tested yet. He’s not the hope for Canada, Fleury is. Of all 3 he’s the one that can and has played in the BIG game (can I say Stanley Cup? Or did the NHL pull an NFL ban on the BIG Game?)

I don’t wanna hear any Drury bashing here. For this week, he’s on MY team as well. Damn, I was so tempted to do the “maaarrrrrrrtttyyyyyy” but I was too busy screaming Miller Time!! With my ranger fan friends. First time I ever high-fived ranger fans for Drury and Callahan plays.

Maybe a new commercial for Miller beer?

“Miller!! It makes enemies celebrate together” (clip of Miller making saves, with Devils and Rangers fans high fiving)

big favor…can you post what games are on for the day and what channel they’ll be on? I really appreciated when blogmama did it and would appreciate it if you could do it as well. Thanks a lot bud. Hopefully you see this comment.

VANCOUVER — It was the tensest of moments Sunday afternoon for Team USA.

Canada had forged a 2-2 tie Sunday and was sensing blood at the game’s midpoint. Wave after wave of Canadian forwards came over the bench, flooding into the zone, buzzing around American goalie Ryan Miller. The capacity crowd was braying and keening for their heroes to right the unsettled picture playing out before their eyes.

Suddenly, the brash upstarts from south of the border had seen their first-period swagger turn into a stagger to the second intermission. They were under duress and just wanted to get to the break without surrendering another goal, which easily could have been a grievous wound at that point of Sunday’s contest.

Monday, Team USA Brian Burke called it a “pressure point.” And, he talked about how you can tell a lot about a team by how it deals with pressure points in big games.

But, Sunday afternoon, American center Chris Drury had no time to think abstractedly about pressure points. He was too busy actively owning them, as has been his wont throughout a clutch career.

This time, Drury found himself on the attacking zone as the Americans established a stronghold for one of the few times in the period. Suddenly, the Americans had a chance against the run of play — and Drury seized it with the cold-blooded ruthlessness of an assassin.

The 33-year-old beat the Canadian defense to a rebound to the left of goalie Martin Brodeur and sent a shot to the near post that beat Brodeur, who was dealing with the distraction of American power forward David Backes right on his doorstep.

“He’s just clutch,” American captain Jamie Langenbrunner told NHL.com Sunday night. “I think I said that when people were questioning him on this team. There are not too many guys that are more clutch than he is.

“I’m happy to have him on this team. He is another one of those guys that can rise up and play in those pressure situations. He feels good in those pressure situations and delivers, and delivers pretty regularly.”

Drury delivered yet again and just like that, the Americans were revived, heading to the dressing room for the second intermission with the lead they had established on the first shift, but had already relinquished twice. Once again, the Americans believed they could knock off the Canadians.

Twenty minutes later, Team USA had done just that, improbably winning the Group A title — and the top seed in the upcoming knock-out portion of the Olympic tournament — by upsetting the host country, 5-3.

And, Drury — who also killed penalties brilliantly and also blocked a Shea Weber slapper in the game’s dying seconds as Canada pressed for the equalizer — had once again delivered on his uncanny ability to deliver in the clutch, which is perhaps the only reason that Drury, in the midst of a disappointing club season with the New York Rangers, has a place among Team USA’s 13-forward contingent.

In fact, American coach Ron Wilson unwittingly played the prophet in the tournament’s first days, trying to not only defend the inclusion of Drury on the roster, but also the appearance at the time that Drury was destined for a role as the seldom-used No. 13 forward on a team dominated by youngsters.

To make his point, Wilson readily evoked the image of a Team USA icon, 1980 Olympic team captain Mike Eruzione, the face of the Americans’ stunning gold-medal triumph in Lake Placid.

“Throughout his career and actually his whole life, the bigger the moment, the better Chris Drury plays,” Wilson said. “Everybody knows that. At some point in this tournament, I think he’s going to be a hero for us in one of these games. I know this is going to be corny, but he reminds me of a Mike Eruzione-type player.”

Sunday was just Drury’s latest turn in the spotlight.

After all, we are talking about a man that has 47 postseason goals in the NHL and more than one-third — 17 to be exact — have been game-winners. He has won a Little League World Series, a NCAA Division I hockey championship and, most importantly for a hockey player, a Stanley Cup. But, Drury has never been interested in resting on his laurels. To him, the fun is proving yourself over and over each time the test arrives.

Those are the credentials that will buy you some serious support in the hockey community. American GM Brian Burke is a believer and he has stood steadfast in his support of Drury despite an avalanche of criticism ever since Drury was named to the team on New Year’s Day.

“I got asked in the press box during the (Canada) game if I felt vindicated about Chris Drury,” Burke said Monday afternoon. “I don’t have to be vindicated about anything. At the end of this tournament, people are going to look at the results and assess them. We are either going to have brought the right group and we’ll get rewarded, or we didn’t and we won’t get rewarded.

“I would feel that Chris Drury has vindicated himself. I feel that the questioning of him was really unfair. Like I said before we got here, we brought Chris Drury because he is Chris Drury. I think the fact that he was questioned is wrong. That it was unfair to him.”

“Throughout his career and actually his whole life, the bigger the moment, the better Chris Drury plays. Everybody knows that. At some point in this tournament, I think he’s going to be a hero for us in one of these games. I know this is going to be corny, but he reminds me of a Mike Eruzione-type player.” — Ron Wilson
The questioning may have been unfair and, at times, over the top. But, there is no denying Drury has struggled since joining the Rangers three years ago.

The year before he came to Broadway, Drury had 37 goals. He hasn’t come close to that number since, and he has just 10 goals this season.

But, while the goals have dried up, Drury’s believe in himself and his ability to help any team on which he plays remains steadfast and absolute. As a result, he says he brushed aside the criticism as easily as he seems to shed defenders in the game’s biggest moments.

Motivation for me is looking across the ice and seeing a team wearing a different jersey,” Drury said. “If I need motivation from what people say or write, I probably shouldn’t be playing the game anymore.”

Judging from his performance so far in this Olympics, Drury is nowhere near reaching the point where motivation — or performance — is an issue.

ilb- i had dvr with direct tv, but i couldnt get msg without paying out teh teeth for it. and they only showed rangers in 60. no live games for some reaon. i got cable. its cheaper and i get to watch online hockey. its nothing like watching on tv but hey, for 2 years i couldnt watch any hpockey unless on versus or nbc. so i’m not complaining. my ex wife used to tape her soap operas over my recored hockey games and my history channel shows. dvr be damned in teh hands of an evil woman. as far as the road trip, when is it? and where? lol i gotta know in advance so i can request tiem off of work and its hard to do right now because of layoffs

She taped over your hockey games?! I’ll refrain from comments.
I’m leaving for Big Sky, Montana this Saturday. Staying the whole week. Wicky, I hope is planning to come up for a day with the Wicksters.